Work Text:
Manon gasps so loud that Lara flinches from across the room. “What? What happened? Are you okay?” The sound of a screenshot being taken fills the air, loud in the silence. Fuck. The ringer is on. Manon shuts it off with shaky fingers and turns her phone to face Lara. Lara squints at the screen instead of standing up and walking over. “What is that?”
Manon’s reply comes out breathless and reverent. “Sophia… Sophia’s ass. Sophia’s ass on her Instagram story. Sophia posted her ass on her Instagram story.”
Lara opens Instagram and clicks on Sophia’s story. “Oh, wow. Wait, did you screenshot this?”
“... Yes?”
“Dude.”
“I know.”
“Girl.”
“I think I need to post this on Weverse,” Manon declares.
Lara looks at Manon like she’s crazy. Maybe she is—driven to madness by Sophia’s ass. There are worse things to go insane over. “Why would you ever need to do that?”
“Everyone should see this picture,” Manon says as she gestures with both hands, waving her phone in the air. “Everybody should have it framed on their nightstand, printed on glossy photo paper. It needs to be displayed in art galleries.”
A lesser—yet equally pathetic—woman would text Sophia something like I saw the post. You can delete it now, lol. Manon instead decides to ensure as many people as possible see both the picture itself and her thirsting over it.
“That’s a little intense, babes,” Lara says.
Manon already has Weverse open. “What’s something chill and nonchalant I can say?”
From where she’s reclined upside down on the couch, Lara says, “Damn, girl, that ass is fat.”
“Okay, never mind.”
Lara lets out a noise that’s nearly a laugh. “You’ve, like, never been nonchalant about Sophia. You basically worship the ground she walks on.” Manon makes a dismissive hand motion. Lara continues, undeterred: “You’re the one who screenshot the post six minutes in and is going to send it in Weverse DM’s. What about that is giving ‘chill and nonchalant’? Embrace the ‘chalance.”
Manon types up the messages, sends them with the screenshot of Sophia’s story, then goes back to staring at the picture. “I did it.”
Lara drags her hands down her face. Her question comes out partially muffled. “What did you say?"
“‘When I tell you I gasped so loud’—loud is in all caps,” Manon recites from memory. “‘She’s so hot.’”
Lara stands up to start pacing. “I was kidding before, with the ‘chalance thing. This is crazy. You’re crazy.”
Manon rolls her eyes. “You don’t have to be here. You have your own apartment.”
“Megan has Yoonchae over. She said something about trying to ‘woo’ her tonight. I didn’t want to ask too many questions or be there to witness Megan embarrassing herself, and it somehow working.”
Manon manages to tear her eyes away from her phone to ask, tone genuine and earnest, “Do you think my post will woo Sophia?”
Lara’s lip curls over her teeth in disgust. “Okay, I’m going to go bother Dani now.” As she leaves, she adds, “Good luck with… all of this. I guess.”
Manon goes back to looking at Sophia’s story, mumbling a distracted Thanks.
Sophia walks into rehearsal the next day wearing the tiniest shorts Manon has ever seen. Manon completely stops listening to whatever Grant’s been telling her, not even nodding or uh-huh-ing along anymore.
She’s never been above begging. She’d crawl over broken glass and hot coals for the chance to grovel at Sophia’s feet.
Manon has a newfound appreciation for muscle memory every time Sophia is in front of her during choreo. Without it, she would have frozen in place, causing multiple casualties.
Eventually, the group gets a water break. Manon and Sophia haven’t broken eye contact since it started. The tension is so thick that the rest of the group feels like they’re suffocating.
Megan fake gags and says, “Yoonchae, cover your eyes.”
Yoonchae makes an affronted noise. “I’m not a baby.” She glances over at Manon and Sophia, and immediately looks revolted, her mouth twisting unpleasantly.
“I warned you,” Megan says, laughing at the expression on Yoonchae’s face.
“I’m still not a baby. You know that.”
Megan finds a Florida-shaped stain on the floor very interesting, scuffing it with her shoe.
Lara laughs, shortly. “Oh, wow. The wooing worked.”
“Shut up,” Megan says as she buries her face in her hands, the color of her cheeks almost matching her hair.
Sophia takes a sip of her water, looking at Manon over the top of the bottle. Manon watches a droplet trail down Sophia’s throat and disappear into her sports bra. Sophia stops drinking and wipes her chin with her thumb before bringing it to her mouth.
Manon watches Sophia’s tongue swirl around the finger. Her ears are ringing; she wouldn’t be surprised if there were steam spilling out of them. Manon distantly hears someone say Jesus fucking Christ. She thinks it might have been Lara. It could have been Manon herself.
As Sophia screws the lid back on the bottle, Manon notices lip gloss residue on the rim. She wonders what else Sophia would leave a ring of gloss around.
Sophia stands up, and three sets of eyes—Manon’s had never left—shift to her. One of her hair clips falls to the floor. “Oops.” Sophia bends over right in front of Manon. Manon makes some sort of choked, garbled, embarrassingly loud noise and hears groans from the peanut gallery.
“I can’t believe Sophia hit her with the bend and snap,” Lara says, genuinely impressed.
Manon’s considering whether she has time to run to the bathroom to rub one out when Dani, who had been at the vending machine down the hall, walks back into the room. She stops in her tracks, as if the tension in the room is a physical force. She slides her gaze from Manon’s slack jaw to Sophia, who’s casually adjusting her hair in the mirror. “What did I miss?”
“Everything,” Manon says, voice a little strained. She sounds stunned.
Their break ends before Dani can start her interrogation.
Later, Grant graciously gives the group another break. While Manon and Sophia have another staring contest, Megan and Dani head to the bathroom. On the way, Megan fills Dani in on what had happened during their water break.
As the duo comes back from the bathroom, Dani abruptly stops walking. “Fuck.”
Megan bumps into Dani from behind, her head colliding with the back of Dani’s. “Ow.” She rubs her nose. “What?”
“The cars, Megan,” Dani says with dawning horror coloring her voice. “We need to keep them separated. If I haven’t christened my car, no one else gets to.”
“Oh, fuck. Okay, okay. You take Manon.”
“Hell no. You take Manon.”
“Manon is your roommate,” Megan argues. “You’re, like, morally, spiritually, legally, and physically obligated to drive her home.”
Dani says, “That’s the problem. I’m gonna have to listen to Manon wax poetic about Sophia’s ass once we get back to the apartment. I don’t wanna hear it on the drive, too. You won’t have to suffer, like me. You’ll only be stuck with her for, like, an hour, tops. I have to deal with it all the time. Please?”
Megan concedes. “Fucking fine. I’ll take Lara and Manon. You take Sophia and Yoonchae.”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you.” Dani wraps Megan in a bear hug.
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever. You owe me.”
Back in the practice room, Megan pulls Lara aside to tell her the car arrangement plan. When rehearsal ends, Lara and Megan each grab one of Manon’s arms and drag her out of the room. Manon fruitlessly tries to dig her feet into the floor as she looks back at Sophia over her shoulder.
Manon spends half the drive looking out the window like a sad puppy, her forehead pressed to the glass, and the other half giving an unnecessary recap of Sophia’s actions during rehearsal, like the other two hadn’t been there for them. She won’t stop talking, no matter how loud Megan makes her music; she just speaks louder each time.
Out of the corner of her eye, Megan watches Lara’s expression get progressively angrier. She breathes a sigh of relief after they drop Manon off at her apartment and treats Lara to some boba to make up for the ordeal.
The day after, Manon and Sophia are called in for a meeting. Manon is already annoyed because it’s a Saturday, one of their alleged days off. Then the meeting ends up lasting no more than five minutes, and Manon becomes downright irate. It really could have been an email, but instead, they had to spend an hour in traffic just to get there, and will probably be stuck in even more traffic on the way back.
When they finally get to their building, Manon accepts Sophia’s offer to walk her to her apartment. At the door, Manon awkwardly stares at Sophia, neither of them saying a word. Manon rocks back and forth on her heels and says, “Well, I should get—”
Sophia says, “Kiss me,” and Manon listens without hesitation, tangling one hand in Sophia’s hair while the other fishes for her keys. She finds them, but can’t get the key in the lock without breaking the kiss. Reluctantly, Manon does, already missing Sophia’s lips.
Sophia starts kissing Manon’s neck, and Manon drops her keys. “Fuck.” She eventually manages to get them in the lock.
Manon slams the door to her apartment open. Her lips are on Sophia’s before they’ve crossed the threshold. Neither of them notices Dani and Megan watching TV on the couch. Both are looking on in mild horror as Manon and Sophia make their way to Manon’s bedroom. Megan and Dani are frozen in their seats until they hear a loud moan from Sophia, and then they’re making wide-eyed, panicked eye contact and scrambling for the door.
Megan pushes off of Dani to get out faster. Dani tugs her back by her hood. Sophia and Manon hadn’t shut the front door, making Megan and Dani’s escape easier. There’s a brief tussle to determine who gets to leave first before an even louder moan makes them turn sideways so they can both fit.
Megan closes the door behind them, then sags against it. A third moan makes her shoot upright. “I swear that, like, vibrated the wood. They’re gonna get noise complaints.” The pair starts speedwalking toward the elevator. “Do we have those blankets they give to traumatized people?” She’s joking, mostly.
Dani pulls out her phone to text the betting pool group chat. “Sophia probably has some back at her apartment. Also, you owe me twenty bucks.”
Megan opens Venmo, mourning the loss of twenty dollars and the Baja Blast—courtesy of Dani—left to melt on Dani’s living room table.
Manon grabs Sophia’s ass. Sophia laughs against her lips, and Manon can’t even say Shut up.
Manon lifts Sophia, pressing her into the wall as they continue kissing, Sophia rutting against Manon’s abs. Sophia bites Manon’s lip, dragging it back as she breaks the kiss.
Manon turns to place Sophia on the bed, hovering over her on all fours. Sophia reverses their positions and tugs her shirt off, flinging it across the room. She isn’t wearing a bra.
Manon sits up to wrap her lips around a nipple, bringing her hand up to the other. She could stay here forever, but Sophia apparently has other plans, considering she’s lifting Manon’s shirt, and Manon would have to detach from Sophia’s chest to get it off all the way. Manon unwillingly does so, moving her mouth to Sophia’s other nipple as soon as the top clears her head.
Sophia unclasps Manon’s bra, then pushes her down with a hand on her chest. Manon fumbles with the zipper on Sophia’s jeans, and they both laugh. Sophia drags her own pants and underwear down her legs simultaneously, straddling Manon’s stomach and leaning down for another kiss once she’s done.
Sophia lowers herself until she’s flush with Manon’s abs. Manon echoes the quiet moan Sophia lets out into her mouth. Sophia is already so wet.
SOMETHING LESBIAN WILL HAPPEN TO YOU SOON. DON’T GIVE UP. Manon has been thanking Instagram user laphingholic in her head since they got inside the apartment. She should make a thank-you post later.
Sophia starts grinding, and Manon moves her hands back to Sophia’s ass to help drag her forward. Sophia whimpers on every thrust, her clit catching on the ridges of Manon’s abs.
Sophia is panting into Manon’s open mouth more than she is kissing her. Her thighs have started shaking, so Manon shifts her grip to Sophia’s hips to move her back and forth. After a few more thrusts, Sophia comes, burying her face in Manon’s neck. Manon helps Sophia keep rolling her hips until she stops twitching.
Sophia nips Manon’s earlobe before kissing down her torso. “I love your abs,” Sophia says as she takes her time licking and biting them. Manon thinks Sophia cleaning herself off her stomach has to be the hottest thing she’s ever seen.
“Ten pack by tour,” Manon replies weakly. Manon doesn’t think she’ll be able to wear cropped tops in public for the foreseeable future. She doesn’t know how she’ll explain that to Humberto and Andrew. Sophia sucks, hard, and yeah, no crop tops for Manon.
Sophia pulls Manon’s pants and underwear off, tossing them somewhere on the floor. She licks a stripe up one of Manon’s thighs, biting down on the crease once she reaches it.
Sophia drags her tongue up to Manon’s clit before dipping it inside for a moment, moaning into her at the taste. She replaces her tongue with two of her fingers, wrapping her lips around Manon’s clit and flicking it with her tongue.
“Fuck,” Manon hisses, bucking into Sophia’s mouth.
Manon really doesn’t want to see how smug Sophia will be if she comes immediately. Manon looks down, and yeah, Sophia’s eyes are crinkling at the corners. Sophia’s other hand has disappeared underneath her own torso.
Sophia sucks, and Manon comes with a high-pitched noise. Sophia lifts her head, a pleased smile on her face as she licks her lips. She’s practically preening. Manon swears Sophia even puffs out her chest a bit as she runs her tongue over the fingers that had just been inside her.
“Don’t say anything,” Manon says, draping an arm over her eyes. Her head is fuzzy—TV static between her ears.
“Wasn’t going to,” Sophia lies.
Manon moves her arm back down to her side. Sophia looks so fond beneath the teasing gleam in her eyes. “I love you,” Manon blurts, unable to stop herself. Manon really didn’t mean to say it. She hadn’t even been thinking it; she only realized it was true once it was out of her mouth.
Sophia freezes, her eyes watering. Before Manon can panic, Sophia lunges in for a kiss. “I love you, too,” Sophia says against Manon’s lips. Manon laughs, relieved, before rolling on top of Sophia, her thigh ending up between Sophia’s spread legs.
“Strap-on?” Sophia asks casually, arching into Manon’s leg. Manon grunts in affirmation. Sophia has started mouthing at her neck again. It’s distracting.
Manon rummages around her nightstand drawer blindly, thinks she has it, but lifts out one of their light sticks instead. Manon has no idea how it got there. She can almost hear Lara saying It has so many uses. She sits up a bit and looks at Sophia, tilting her head slightly in a silent question.
Sophia wrinkles her nose. “That’s so unsanitary, Manon.”
“I have condoms?” Manon replies.
“Absolutely not.”
Manon thinks she’d die if Sophia left right now, so she puts the light stick on top of the nightstand and goes back to looking for the strap-on. She finds it and her bottle of lube quickly this time. Manon maintains as much physical contact as possible while she slips the harness around her hips.
Sophia has gotten impossibly wetter, her inner thighs shining in the light.
Manon slots her legs under Sophia’s as she lubes up the dildo, then slowly and gently slides inside. Once their hips are flush, Manon stills and strokes Sophia’s hip bone with her thumb as she waits for permission to move. It doesn’t take long for Sophia to grant it, nor for her to give a breathy Harder.
Sophia digs her nails into Manon’s back and arms, scrabbling for purchase. She’s flushed all the way down to her chest. “You’re so—fuck—so pretty,” Manon breathes.
“I thought I was so hot?” Sophia asks with a cocky smile. In response, Manon lifts one of Sophia’s legs, resting it on her shoulder. The new angle makes Sophia’s mouth drop open in a moan, her smirk long gone. She hooks her fingers around Manon’s waist beads, nails scratching Manon’s abs.
The noises coming out of Sophia’s mouth are more obscene than the ones from between her legs. Manon thinks she’s so lucky to have Sophia like this, even though her neighbors likely disagree.
“So good, Manon,” Sophia whines.
Manon moves one hand to Sophia's chest and the other between her legs. After a few circles on her clit, Sophia stills before coming with a gasp.
Manon carefully pulls out before flopping onto her back beside Sophia. She moves to take the harness off, but Sophia grabs her hand to stop her. Sophia ignores the question in Manon’s eyes as she moves down her body. Sophia grips the base of the dildo and looks up with half-lidded eyes to see understanding in Manon’s gaze.
“Oh,” Manon exhales shakily. Sophia takes the dildo in her mouth. “Oh.” Sophia hollows her cheeks, and it’s almost like Manon can really feel it. “Oh, fuck.” Manon slides a hand into Sophia’s hair, lightly pulling it. Sophia doesn’t break eye contact as she bobs up and down until the toy is slick with spit.
When Sophia releases the dildo, there’s a ring of lip gloss around the base. Manon has a new nomination for the “hottest things she’s ever seen” category.
Manon groans, low and wrecked, wiping the smeared gloss on Sophia’s lips with her thumb. Sophia’s tongue darts out briefly, and Manon shudders before pulling Sophia until she’s suspended above Manon’s mouth.
Manon drags Sophia onto her waiting tongue, grabbing Sophia’s ass to encourage her to move. Sophia reaches back to press the base of the dildo against Manon’s clit. The pace of Manon’s hips raising into Sophia’s hand matches that of Sophia grinding on her tongue.
“Right there, baby,” Sophia keens. Manon wants to hear Sophia call her that for the rest of her life—beyond that, even. “Don’t stop.” As if Manon would ever.
Manon comes first, moaning against Sophia. Sophia’s hips jerk unsteadily, then she’s following Manon with a whimper.
Sophia collapses onto her side, next to Manon. Manon shimmies out of the harness and tosses it and the dildo somewhere. Sophia will make her deal with them eventually, probably sooner rather than later.
Sophia rolls onto her back, and Manon moves so she’s lying on top of Sophia with her head on her chest. Manon is panting; Sophia’s breathing is calm and steady, which feels incredibly unfair. Sophia stroking Manon’s back, fingers trailing over the birthmark on her shoulder, makes Manon feel better about it.
“Hey,” Sophia starts. Manon turns her face toward Sophia. Sophia doesn’t look back. “Do you maybe want to go on a date sometime? With me?” Her words start picking up speed. “Well, obviously with me. Who else would you be going with? There’s no one else here.”
Sophia laughs awkwardly, then continues to ramble. Her pulse is jumping in her throat, fast enough to be visible. She still can’t look at Manon. Manon can’t help but find it funny—and incredibly endearing—considering how much of a departure it is from Sophia’s earlier behavior.
Manon is so lucky to have Sophia like this, too.
Manon kisses Sophia. After they pull away, Sophia blinks, nose scrunching as she grins. She’s finally making eye contact.
“How could I say no?” Manon asks, smiling, too. “We already had sex and said we love each other, which is usually seen as the wrong order.” Sophia drags Manon in for another kiss.
Manon pulls away to say, “I need a shower.” Sophia has a playful glint in her eye. Manon is, frankly, exhausted, but she certainly won’t say no to that.
Manon should maybe send laphingholic a gift basket, one of those really fancy ones.
Sophia makes Manon wear a crop top to rehearsal the next day. Sophia is glowing, practically floating an inch off the ground. Manon looks like she just finished running a marathon.
Megan sees them first from her position on the couch. “Whoa.”
“Oh,” Lara starts, “you weren’t kidding.”
“I would never joke about money,” Dani scoffs. “Cough it up.” Lara digs out a twenty-dollar bill from her wallet and gives it to Dani. “Yoonchae too.” Lara rolls her eyes and passes another twenty to Yoonchae, who accepts it with a smug grin from her spot on the floor, her back pressed against Megan’s knees.
They spend the rest of rehearsal watching Manon and Sophia unsubtly flirt. Money once again exchanges hands when Sophia says the couple will be staying late to “perfect some choreo.”